'A quiet inspiration'

Former Parkland star athlete working hard to beat Stage 3 cancer and contribute to the Lafayette College football team.

August 24, 2010|By Paul Reinhard, SPECIAL TO THE MORNING CALL

Pete Bross would run a 20-yard sprint and find he then needed a five-minute rest.

A workout might be followed by a one-hour nap.

That might not be unusual for a 70-year-old. But Bross was just 18.

When he got fatigued, he pushed himself a little harder.

"Me being me, I was the tough guy," Bross said recently. "I was, like, 'I don't need a doctor. I'm fine. I'm just out of shape.'"

Finally, at the urging of his girlfriend, Breanna Mazalewski, and with the dogged reluctance of his mother, Kay, to take no for an answer, he relented and agreed to a trip to the hospital emergency room.

One day later, he was in the operating room beginning a fight for his life.

As it turned out, the problem was not that the former star football player and wrestler at Parkland High School had slacked off in his training regimen. The problem was Stage 3 testicular cancer — and much more.

Bross, a robust 230-pound fullback-linebacker who was preparing to continue his sports career at Lafayette College, got the bad news four days before his high school graduation.

"Two questions came into my mind when I was told the diagnosis," Bross said. "Am I going to live? Am I going to be able to play football again?"

"God took us in a whole different direction in Peter's life," his mother said.

That was in June 2009. Last week, Bross was in full gear as the Lafayette football team went through a three-hour practice in the hot August sun and on the blistering FieldTurf surface of Fisher Stadium in Easton.

Chances are, lots of Leopards were not thrilled at the conditions.

Bross was not one of those. He may have been the happiest player in the stadium.

"It was an unbelievable feeling when the doctor said I was clear and cleared to play football as well," Bross said. "I'm very happy that I'm healthy, I'm alive, and being able to play football again is a bonus. I love it. It was unbelievable. I couldn't even describe it."

Testicular cancer and testicle self-examination are not among the favorite topics of jocks in the locker room, but the disease is serious stuff — especially for young men.

"Actually, it's the most frequent cancer in men age 18-36," Bross said. "And yet, when do you ever see that on TV or in ads or anything? You don't. It's unfortunate that [doctors] don't check for it as much as they should. I went through a bunch of physicals prior to my diagnosis and never was checked. Had they done that, I probably could have caught it a lot earlier and saved myself from going through all the trouble I did."

Testicular cancer gained worldwide attention in 1996 when American cyclist Lance Armstrong was diagnosed with the disease. Armstrong's battle, and how he went on to win seven consecutive Tour de France championships after being treated, is a great story of victory.

But football player Brian Piccolo, whose life was chronicled in the movie "Brian's Song," died in 1970 of a rare disease, embryonal cell carcinoma, related to testicular cancer.

Among other celebrities who have survived testicular cancer are former Phillies first baseman John Kruk, ice skating champion Scott Hamilton, actor-comedian Richard Belzer and NBC news correspondent Dan Abrams.

It is a disease that can sneak up on you.

"I had no idea," Bross said. "Being an athlete, the symptoms didn't come to me as quick as with a normal person. I didn't notice anything down in that region, but by the time I did notice it, it was in my lungs and that's why I was out of breath."

Armstrong's cancer was also Stage 3 when it was diagnosed, and the cancer spread to his lungs, abdomen and brain. Bross went down almost the same path.

Bross had his first surgery, and post-operative chemotherapy treatments, between June and August 2009. He was cleared to play football, but he didn't get into any Lafayette games. During the week of the Leopards' game with Harvard, he suffered several focal (or partial) seizures, and an examination revealed cancer in his brain.

Bross underwent surgery to remove that tumor in November, followed by more chemo. He was then referred Dr. Lawrence Einhorn at the Indiana University Medical Center in Indianapolis, at which point his treatment was ramped up.

Einhorn, who headed the team that treated Armstrong, was instrumental, more than 35 years ago, in developing a treatment program that increased the survival rate for testicular-cancer patients from 10 percent to 95 percent.

Bross had two stem cell transplants in Indianapolis between January and the end of February. Whole blood was first drawn from him. It was then separated into white cells, red cells and platelets and frozen. After several days of high-dose chemotherapy — five times the usual dosage — Bross was ready to have his own stem cells retransfused.

After the second go-round, he was able to return home and take oral chemo from May until July.

"I put all my faith in God and it worked, and I'm lucky to be where I am right now," he said.